The Party Boys were an Australian rock supergroup with a floating membership that existed from 1982 until 1992. Created by Mondo Rock's bass guitarist, Paul Christie as a part-time venture for professional musicians with downtime from their other projects, the group had temporary members from acts such as Status Quo, The Angels, Sherbet, Skyhooks, Rose Tattoo, The Choirboys, Australian Crawl, Divinyls, Models, Dragon and Swanee plus international stars including Joe Walsh, Eric Burdon, Alan Lancaster and Graham Bonnet. In March 1983 their debut album, Live at Several 21sts, peaked at No. 9 on the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart. In June 1987 they had a number-one hit on the related Singles Chart with a cover version of John Kongos' hit, "He's Gonna Step On You Again". It also peaked at No. 10 on the New Zealand Singles Chart.
Paul Christie was the bass guitarist for Australian rock group Mondo Rock, which he left in 1982. He put together the first line-up of The Party Boys in Sydney with guitarists Kevin Borich (ex-The La De Das, Kevin Borich Express), Harvey James (Mississippi, Ariel, Sherbet), and drummer Graham "Buzz" Bidstrup, who had recently left The Angels.Australian Crawl vocalist James Reyne was in Sydney shooting the TV mini-series Return to Eden and agreed to play some shows between filming. The band did a short run of shows performing cover songs chosen by various members. Recordings made of these gigs became the basis for the group's album Live at Several 21sts. When Reyne's filming schedule was over, he returned to his work with Australian Crawl in Melbourne and left the band. In March 1983, the album reached No. 9 on the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart and spawned the single, "Bitch" a cover of The Rolling Stones' album track from 1971's Sticky Fingers. Christie, Borich and James were encouraged to continue with the project.
Richard Clapton was brought in as Reyne's replacement on vocals and Don Raffaele joined on saxophone. The band toured the east coast, again playing only covers from artists including Bob Dylan, Aerosmith and The Rolling Stones. A second live album, Greatest Hits (of Other People) (1983) was the result of that tour and the Bobby Fuller Four cover single, "I Fought the Law", was issued in November. Clapton and James left the group. Greatest Hits (of Other People) peaked at No. 25. The singer for the next tour was former Skyhooks vocalist and TV personality Graham "Shirley" Strachan with Rose Tattoo guitarist Robin Riley replacing James; this version of the band produced the album No Song Too Sacred, yet another live album of covers. The related single, "Kashmir", was a Led Zeppelin song.
The band's 1985 line-up saw Strachan, Riley and Bidstrup (who was now with GANGgajang) replaced by Marc Hunter from Dragon, ex-Divinyls drummer Richard Harvey and United States guitarist, Joe Walsh (ex-The Eagles). The sold-out national tour that followed formed the basis of the album You Need Professional Help that featured an extended guitar duel between Walsh and Borich on Walsh's track "Rocky Mountain Way". [extract from World eBook Library]
In 1986, Christie, Borich and Harvey teamed up with Rose Tattoo lead singer Angry Anderson, guitarist John Brewster from The Angels and ex-Status Quo bassist Alan Lancaster to form a new version of The Party Boys. With Lancaster on bass, Christie switched to drums so the band now had two drummers. No recording was made of this line-up and following the tour, Anderson left.
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